26 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



dialogues in endless variety and illustrated from many 

 sides, embodying many ideas contained in the writings 

 of his predecessors or suggested by the conversations 

 of Socrates, have formed the text for the discussions 

 of more than one half of the great thinkers of ancient 

 and modern times. Attempts have indeed been made, 

 ever since the time of Descartes and Bacon, to escape 

 from the influence of Plato's idealism ; the fact, however, 

 that hardly any philosopher who has attacked the highest 

 problems of philosophy has succeeded in liberating himself 

 from the use of Plato's terminology, or consequently from 

 the influence of his ideas, proves to us how important 

 a part the great problem of the twofold aspect of reality 

 plays in all our most serious reflections. Of modern 

 languages the German has certainly assimilated more than 

 any other the wealth of expressions which Greek philo- 

 sophers, notably Plato and Aristotle, have bequeathed to 

 posterity. Other languages, especially the English, have 

 only tardily followed ; but during the latter part of the 

 nineteenth century, when the British mind turned again 

 to those deeper problems which, after the original and 

 isolated treatment contained in the writings of Bishop 

 Berkeley, had been pushed aside and neglected, the 

 necessity was felt to enrich the English language by a 

 variety of terms, most of which are directly or indirectly 

 imported from ancient philosophy, or at least, through 

 their German equivalents, suggested by it. 1 It is especi- 



1 The translation of Plato's 

 ' Dialogues ' by some of the fore- 

 most thinkers in the three coun- 

 tries during the nineteenth century 

 has done much to promote idealism. 

 Thus we have in Germany Schleier- 



macher's Translations (1804-28), in 

 France Victor Cousin's Translations 

 (1822-40), and in England Jowett's 

 Translations (1871, &c.) Nor 

 is it unimportant to note that 

 one prominent representative of 



